Slow-Cooked Beef Curry

I’m both happy and desperately sad that this recipe is only just reaching my blog now – over a year since its beginning. It is by far my favourite curry; it is so simple, yet absolutely rammed full of richness and flavour. Indeed, the spice list for this particular concoction may be a little shorter than that of other curries, but the quality brought to the dish by the beef is unrivalled. Not only is beef a far more pleasing ingredient to cook with than chicken breast, the most overrated cut of meat there is, the fat found in braising beef has the happy effect of thickening and enriching the sauce. When served with my recently posted mango chutney this is one recipe not to be missed, assuming you’re not a vegetarian.

While we’re milling around the subject of assumption, I thought you might all like to have a little whistle-stop update about my garden. Our cherry tree is reasonably close to bearing fruit, as is our strawberry plant. The apple tree is preparing itself for the growing of a preposterous amount of fruit, considering its size, and our runner beans are poking their green heads through the soil as we speak. Our three chickens are still thriving, though their eggs are far from cracking (my apologies). Indeed, perhaps they would best be described as three old spinsters desperately clinging to their primary function.

In other news, the Olympic torch stopped for the night in our town – today it leaves for north Wales before going on to England and then Scotland. I’m sure you’ll hear more from me regarding the travels of the least reliable eternal flame in existence, since Katherine’s dad is to be a torchbearer sometime in July (I think). How very exciting!

Anyway, back to the curry! One would assume that the beef is the one and only star of the show in this particular dish, that is not so. There is another extremely prominent flavour in the shape of seven or eight cardamom pods which succeed in accompanying the beef in immaculate fashion. Indeed, this really is a recipe which favours the cardamom lovers among you. If you’re not such a fan the pods may be omitted, but the curry will certainly be missing a rather special ingredient. Though, I can’t see how anyone could detest cardamom – please let me know if you don’t like it so I can castigate you severely.

Slow-Cooked Beef Curry

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

• 600g braising beef, cut into chunks

• 2 onions, finely chopped

• Oil

• 1 red pepper, finely sliced

• 1 green pepper, finely sliced

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed

• 2 fresh chillies

• A large knob of fresh ginger, finely chopped

• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp chilli flakes

• 7-8 cardamom pods crushed

• 2 tins of peeled plum tomatoes

• 1 tbsp tomato puree

• 1 beef stock cube

• Enough water to nearly cover the beef

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Fresh coriander to serve

Method:

1. Begin by frying the onions, cumin, chilli flakes, garlic, ginger, and cardamom in a generous amount of oil. After 5 minutes add the beef and cook until browned. Tip in the tomatoes, tomato puree, stock cube, water, peppers and fresh chillies. Cover and cook for an hour.

2. After an hour remove the lid and reduce slowly for a further 1-2 hours, depending on time constraints or urges. Once reduced right down, though far from dry, season to taste and serve with fresh coriander and rice.

Cost: As you all know, I am a big fan of the cheaper cuts of meat – they are simply perfect for dishes like this since they respond particularly well to a lengthy cooking process. Happily, and somewhat obviously, cheap cuts of meat are cheap, which makes this dish cheap. Indeed, dinner enough for six should set one back a trifling £7.20 – a mere £1.20 per portion!

Once, after a big family dinner and a glass or two of wine, my grandfather started heading to his car. I asked him if he was okay driving and he said, “Daisy, I’ve been driving under the influence since before you were born!”

He did eventually have to give the car up though. After a bunch of teenagers rear-ended him. I think he takes a great deal of pride in knowing that the accident was not his fault!

Not referring to your Welsh cow, Nick, but to the beef available in the United States. We won’t eat beef from feed lots, so we need to know who raised a steer before we buy or eat beef. We eat it seldom.

Being an inveterate curry eater from every part of Asia for decades shall surely try the recipe! Thanks!! Love the cardamom. Wonder whether there is quite enough heat in this for me: well, that can be adjusted ! The Olympics: simply can’t wait, but first have to stay up three weeks’ of nights to see the ‘Tour de France’!!!

Wow Nick – love the changes to the look of the blog! (Or is it just that everything looks 100 times better on my new computer?!) Too funny we were both thinking curry on the same day…come to think of it I should really try your mango chtney with some of the leftovers from our s this week, they would go very well together! Alas, I am sure this dish is divine, but not for this hardcore veggie – though I am quite sure the husband would happily devour it

Oooh, I bet this would freeze brilliantly as well! What a great garden you have! I would SO love to have a cherry tree in the backyard. Our chookies are getting old too – laying fewer and fewer eggs – but they’re still digging the garden up for us, which is the main thing!

Delicious looking curry but we found that cardamom can most definately become overwhelming in a hurry if you don’t watch how much you are using. We used some delicious home made “rooster” stock to make Mulligatawny soup and using a recipe that we gleaned online, we proceeded to follow it to the letter…looked amazing…tasted…err tasted… not so good! Too much, no WAY too much cardamom and it totally overwhelmed the taste of the soup…4 large cans of tomatoes, 2 cans of coconut cream later and a handful each of cumin and coriander dry fried was needed to even reduce the flavour. Cardamom is like coriander…you CAN have too much of a good thing…go easy folks, its like being drunk… fun when you are up and disgusting when you tip over the edge!

Hi Nick, I’m a new Frugal Feeding Fan and made this curry at the weekend (despite it being 28 degrees here!) and can honestly say it’s totally fabulous. I adore fragrant cardamoms and this recipe truely celebrated them! Thank you so much, it’s the best curry I’ve made in a long long time! Can’t wait to try more Frugal recipes, Louisa

Thank you for liking my post…..this looks delish wil give it a go thank you! by the way my cousin is off to the Olympics!!! very exciting!! selected for the Australian women’s water polo team!! go girls!!

This recipe looks great! I’m a fan of the cheaper cuts of meat, but sometimes they still turn out tough when they are cooked too fast. Is this recipe really spicy? I like the flavor of curry, but not anything really hot….. Thanks!